5. Enacting the Anthropocene: Anthropos, the collective being

According to the text, there are two geological periods of the beginning of the Anthropocene. There
is the Old Anthropocene and the New Anthropocene. The Old Anthropocene is associated with the
earliest forms of human modification of the landscape, from fire manipulation to early food
production. The New Anthropocene is set in the modern industrial era. For some it is set in the
early days of industrialisation, for others it is linked to the testing of nuclear bombs in the
1950s. Initially, the Anthropocene was linked to European industrialisation. The two most
influential reconceptualizations of the Anthropocene-the Capitalocene and the Plantationocene-in
turn urge attention to the commanded systems that began to shape the world some 500 years ago. That
is, global capitalism and colonialism. The extent to which we interfere with the environment means
that we cannot separate ourselves from it. With this, a paradox arises because the more we can
change our environment, the less we can tell the human and the inhuman apart. And in response to
the increasing foregrounding of the human, theorizing about non-human actors develops. Thinking
about different versions of humanity leads us to two different versions of the future. The
terrestrial pluriverse is a broad transcultural compilation of concepts, worldviews, and practices
from around the world that challenges the modernist ontology of universalism in favor of a
plurality of possible worlds. In contrast, escaping into space seems the next logical step for
humans.

The second text describes how the term "Anthropocene" did not merely provide basic data about the
state of the Earth, or promote a systematic and fruitful view of its uncertain future. But that it
also suggested a history, a story that seeks to answer the question "How did we get here?" In doing
so, they have created an authorized narrative about the Earth, its past and future, shared with the
human species. The knowledge and discourse of the Anthropocene can therefore itself form part of a
hegemonic system of representing the world as a totality to be controlled. The narratives of
Anthropocenologists propose three stages. The first is the Industrial Revolution up to the Second
World War. The second is the great acceleration after the Second World War. The third stage begins
around the year 2000 when the human origin of the ongoing climate change is confirmed with
certainty. The concept of a stage is an outdated term for many historians. Yet it has returned with
the grand narrative of anthropocenologists and could be part of the current ideology of ecological
modernization and green economics, which internalizes the value of the "services" provided by
nature in markets and policies. The quantification of nature is a business, just as the
quantification of the economy was after World War II. In the history of the anthropocenologists'
conception, it could be what economic and social history was to Keynesian and productivist
economics in the postwar period. Thus, the earth gradually abolishes nature and turns it into
techno-nature. An earth completely permeated by human activity, as if only what Homo faber creates
is of real value. The image of the Earth visible from space conveys a radically simplified
interpretation of the world. It evokes a sense of total overview, global and dominant, rather than
a sense of modest belonging. It reinforces naturalism, a sense of a disinterested gaze that is
somehow led from nowhere.

According to Genesis, God gave humans power over the world in order to subdue it. To conquer the
earth, the water and the heavens. He gave us the seeds of plants to farm the world.

- Hoelle, Jeffrey, and Nicholas C. Kawa. 2021. "Placing the Anthropos in Anthropocene." Annals of
the American Association of Geographers 111 (3): 655-662. https://doi.org/
10.1080/24694452.2020.1842171.

- Bonneuil, Christophe, and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz. 2016. The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth,
History and Us. London: Verso. Chapter 3, Clio, the Earth and the Anthropocenologists (pages
47-64).

- The Bible. Any translation. Genesis 1:28-31